I have been enjoying this post from the Lynneguist on words that are untranslatable between British and American English (nominate your favorites!): http://separatedbyacommonlanguage.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/untranslatable
Reading it made me wonder, can one lie back and think of England for England?
I’ve just come back from my Irish Set Dance group. Set dances are called by someone and here in Hamburg we use a mix of English and German. The step names are mostly in English – I’m not sure that there any books that explain the steps in another language – but there are moves where German is used. So you might here »Ladies Chain und dann umdrehen« meaning “Ladies Chain and then turn around” or »Ein halves House« – “Half a House” – which is particularly interesting because of the inflected form of the word halb to match the German word for “house” – das Haus. One also learns words like schwindelig – “dizzy” (from all of that umdrehen) – and die Pause – “the short break” – that aren’t dance specific.
But probably most importantly, I think that dancing acts a little like alcohol is meant to, it relaxes you and you are more willing to give German a try. It helps too that you laugh when steps get screwed up, at least in my wonderful group, because laughter is a great learning accelerator!
Today’s post is inspired by comments on Facebook by Herr Doktor Language Maven David Dunning whose use of the word Ellbogen prompted me to wonder about “bow” words in English and Bogen words in German.
In English we have “elbow,” “rainbow,” “crossbow” and the proper name “Strongbow” for a brand of alcoholic cider, as well as “bow-legged” and “bow-hunting.” There are also phrases with the word “bow” such as “hair bow” or “Cupid’s Bow.” These all derive from the “arc” or “arch” or “curve” meaning of “bow” – whose pronunciation /boʊ/ – rhymes with “glow” – rather than from its homographic sibling “bow” /baʊ/ which rhymes with “cow” (given it’s shape, it is a bit of a surprise that the front of a ship is a /baʊ/ instead of a /boʊ/ but according to http://www.etymonline.com/ it comes from the “Old Norse bogr or Middle Dutch boech ‘bow of a ship,’ literally ‘shoulder (of an animal),’ the connecting notion being ‘the shoulders of the ship.’ ”
In German we have der Regenbogen – “rainbow” – and the aforementioned der Ellbogen – “elbow” – and we also have der Augenbrauenbogen – “the curve of the eyebrow” and other words that fit the English model. There is another, non-parallel, meaning for Bogen – “sheet” – as in the word der Ausschneidebogen – “the sheet of cardboard cutouts” – or der Briefmarkenbogen – “sheet of postage stamps.” Most intriguing to me, though, are a family of idioms using Bogen, namely:
den Bogen raushaben – “to know the ropes” [I couldn’t find an independent meaning for raushaben]
den Bogen überspannen – “to overdo things” or “to overstep the mark” [to straddle]
bei etwas den Bogen herausbekommen” – “to get the hang of something” [from something, to glean]
jemanden in hohem Bogen hinauswerfen – “to throw someone out on her/his ear” [someone, high arc, to throw out]
um jemanden/etwas einen [weiten/großen] Bogen machen “to steer clear of someone/something” or “to give someone or something a wide berth” [around someone/thing, wide/large arc, to make]
plötzliches Erbrechen in hohem Bogen – “projectile vomiting”
etwas in Bausch und Bogen ablehnen/zurückweisen – “to reject something completely” [wad, to refuse/to reject]
Finally, the title of this post, “Elbow Room,” can be translated in three ways. Pons.eu tells me that the first translation means “space to move” – die Ellbogenfreheit (literally “elbow freedom/liberty/privilege”). The second and third are figurative uses meaning “freedom of action” – die Bewegungsfreiheit (literally “movement freedom/liberty/privilege”) and der Spielraum (literally play + room/space, and properly translated as “leeway” or “scope” or “latitude” or “flexibility” ). Perhaps their lack of a Bogen is a signal for this more abstract meaning, although I must say that on reflection, room for one’s elbow(s) doesn’t offer all that much room…
Gestern bin ich zurück nach Deutschland geflogen. Ich habe sofort bemerkt, dass bei uns hier in Deutschland mehr Grüße als in den USA haben. Zum Beispiel, verabschiedete man sich erstmal mit »schönen Tag,« »schönes Wochenende« oder »Bis später« und dann mit »Tschüss« oder »Ciao.« Und bedenken das Wort »sich verabschieden.« Auf English müssen wir sagen to say goodbye oder to bid someone goodbye oder to make one’s farewells, es gibt kein bestimmtes Wort. (Obwohl viele Sprachlehrbücher meinen, dass man »auf wiedersehen« sagen kann, ich habe das fast nie gehört.) »Abschieds-« ist sehr produktiv, dict.cc gibt 38 Einträge, z.B.:
»Abschiedsansprache« – farewell address
»die Abschiedsbemerkung« – parting observation
»der Abschiedsblick« – parting look
»der Abschiedsbrief« – farewell note, Dear John letter, suicide note
»das Abschiedsgesuch« – resignation (sein Abschiedsgesuch einreichen – to tender your resignation)
»das Abschiedsessen« – farewell dinner
»das Abschiedsmahl« – The Last Supper
»die Abschiedssaison« – farewell season
»der Abschiedssschmerz« – pain of parting
»die Abschiedsstimmung« – farewell/parting mood
Also, obwohl es war sehr schwer, verabschieden meine Freunden in den USA, jetzt kann ich »Hallo« zu den vielen deutschen Grüße sagen!
Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, a group of us decided to have a “BBQ” (or “barbecue” or “barbeque” or “B-B-Q” or “barbie” or “cookout” or with a different sentence structure “to grill”) – die Grillparty – in Stadtpark which happily for me is very close to where I live. This is very popular in Stadtpark and as a result there are Grillzone – “grilling areas” and Grilltonne – “large metal rubbish containers for coals.”
At the end of the evening when we were trying to find all of our things in the dark, we ran across a hedgehog – der Igel – which is pronounced like the English word “eagle” – [ˈi:gl̩] (which is der Adler in German). Between the eagle being the national bird of the US and the word Igel starting with a capital “I” which as an English word is pronounced [aɪ] rather than [ˈi:], I fear that this is a word that will always mark me as a non-native speaker. A thought which makes me think »I, wie ekelig« – “Ugh, that’s horrible” – and »I wo« -“No way!” – although it seems highly likely that I will need to forget how these phrases are spelled if I want to use them properly!
I’m not sure what was happening during this morning’s run but somehow into my head popped the sound-based relationship between the German word die Komödie – “comedy” – and the English word “commode.” According to pons.eu, “commode” has three translations: der Leibstuhl and der Toilettenstuhl, both of which mean “toilet” and die Kommode which is used for the meaning “chest of drawers.”
Perhaps the frequency with which bodily functions are evoked in humor in English was a contributing factor in building the association in my mind…
In der englischsprachige Welt, können meisten Leute mit Stäbchen essen (asiatische Speisen sind sehr beliebt, z.B., Sushi, Pad Thai, Kung Pao Hähnchen). Heute habe ich gelernt, dass in anderen Länder sie sind nicht so bekannt. Wir haben bei Dialog in Deutsch Chinesische Essen gegessen (eine Abschiedsparty für eine Frau aus China). Ein Mann aus Korea hat Stäbchen mitgebracht und alle haben die versuchen. Aber weil sie ganz neu waren, viele haben nicht gewusst, dass man das Paar trennen müssen. Es ist schon schwer genug, die getrennt zu benutzen! Zusammen ist es fast unmöglich.
Und jetzt habe ich gelernt, dass das Wort “Stäbchen” hat viele verschiedene Bedeutungen. In der Augen haben wir “Stäbchen” (rods) und Zapfen (cones). Als Frauen haben wir manchmal “Stäbchen”(bones or underwire) in unseren BH. Wann man häkelt, man kann Stäbchen (crochet stitches) machen.
Aber, können “Stäbchen” aufwachsen und “Stäbe” werden?
Today’s discovery was of a verb that has a similar set of both positive and negative connotations in German as in English: ausnutzen. You can use it, as someone did today, to refer to “taking advantage of or making the most of something” like good weather (which we are certainly having here in Hamburg). However, it can also mean that you are “taking advantage of someone” or “exploiting” them.
It sure is nice when one can “take advantage” of connections between your native tongue and the one you are trying to learn!
I amused my conversational partner recently by referring to a person as frisch rather than frech. In English if we want to talk about food or weather we can refer to them as “fresh” and we can do the same with people if they are “getting fresh with us.” In German, however, there are different words to express the two ideas. A person can be referred to as frech meaning “fresh” or “cheeky” or “bold” or “sassy” and “to make a sassy reply” is frech antworten. Interestingly, rather than referring to a “cheeky monkey,” you suggest someone is like a sparrow – wie ein Spatz sein. It also appears that certain things other than people can be frech – dict.cc gives the example of “a hat worn at a rakish angle” – ein Hut frech aufgesetzt – and pons.eu offers “a peppy haircut” – eine freche Frisur.
To refer to the freshness of weather or food, however, you want to use frisch: frisches Brot, frisch gefallener Schnee, frisch gepresster Orangensaft, Frisch also means “recent.” Hence when there is “wet paint,” you will see signs saying frisch gestrichen and to say something is “hot off the press” you can say it is frisch gedruckt. Frisch also can be used in reference to making up a bed with fresh linen – die Betten frisch beziehen. And in checking dict.cc, I learned that there are situations where frisch can be part of a phrase that applies to a person: “clean-shaven” – frisch rasiert; “just married” – frisch verheiratet; and “to be fresh as a daisy” – frisch und munter sein.
With the help of Collins online, I now know how to say “we’re fresh out of cheese” – uns ist gerade der Käse ausgegangen and “they are fresh out of ideas” – ihnen sind die Ideen ausgegangen. Which I am, and so, until next time, my friends!
I’ve seen a number of discussions of the difference between mögen and gefallen but I haven’t come across anything attempting to differentiate passen and gefallen which seems curious to me as unlike mögen and gefallen, these two share the use of the dative case to refer to the person doing the “liking” or who is “suited” or “pleased by” something (.e.g, using mir for “me” in these examples):
Es gefällt mir besser
Das passt mir besser
One of the meanings that pons.eu gives for passen is angenehm sein – “to be pleasant or pleasing.” There is a noun das Gefallen – “pleasure” – that pons indicates can be used with haben or finden to mean “to get pleasure from doing something.”
Both gefallen and passen seem a bit less direct than mögen, perhaps because of the use of the dative case, and thus it seems like they might be used in cases where you want to soften a negative statement. As an English speaker my intuitions may be way off, but it feels as though instead of saying “I don’t like it” fairly directly with mögen, you could say “It doesn’t suit me” with passen or gefallen. I will need to try this hypothesis out on a few native speakers to see if it gets some “likes” (oder Gefällt mir à la Facebook)!
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